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No Comments [ Add Comment ]Vets nursing home on schedule
By CHARLES F. TRENTELMANOGDEN -- Despite Legislative cuts to Utah's budget and the national economy heading south, construction of a new 120-bed veterans nursing home in Weber County is on schedule. State officials plan to open the facility by Veterans Day 2009.
Terry Schow, director of the Utah Division of Veterans Affairs, said funds for the home, $20 million approved by the Legislature in March, are in the bank and safe from cuts.
Schow has been in meetings, going over design and construction proposals that are now down to three. Sometime during the week of Oct. 20, he said, a winner will be selected, "and then in the last week of October we will actually do a groundbreaking at the site in Ogden."
Work will start then, he said. "Our timetable is pretty aggressive in that we want to have the home done by November of '09, by Veterans Day of '09. It's going to be a 12-month timetable."
Funding for the home was approved by the Legislature this year after several years of lobbying by Schow's department and veterans groups around the state.
Utah is home to several hundred thousand veterans but currently has only one veterans nursing home, an 80-bed facility adjacent to the VA Hospital in Salt Lake City.
The Legislature appropriated all the funds to build the home despite the fact that the federal government is supposed to provide a two-for-one match. Schow and veterans groups argued that the federal government was years away from getting to Utah on the waiting list, the need for the home now was urgent and Utah's funding surpluses for the last several years meant the money was there.
In light of last week's legislative meeting to cut the budget because of the softening economy, Schow said it is fortunate that the funds were approved when they were.
Schow said the home will be a good investment. In addition to the $20 million that will be spent to build the home, the Veterans Administration pays $75 per day, per patient, to care for veterans in the home. That adds up to $3.28 million a year in wages and other spending for the local economy.
"It's really a great economic development thing. It's a big deal -- it is the biggest veterans home in the state."
Utah will eventually be paid back for the federal match, he said, probably in another three years. Schow said he intends to try to use that money to build a third nursing home in Utah County.
The Weber home will be 75,000 square feet, "and some options we're looking at are some alternative energy, solar or wind," either when it is built or added on later.
"We've already had folks asking if they can have more time. Our answer is, that's our timetable. "
There are 45,000 veterans in Top of Utah and people have already been inquiring. In addition to people making things for the veterans, such as Joan Stolfus of Ogden, who made 120 quilts, Schow said there are several people who want to furnish individual rooms.
Land for the home, west of the Weber County Fairgrounds, was donated by the Utah National Guard.
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